Category: Decor

Birthday parties for our kids…we try to make them such a memorable event for our kids (funny thing is they probably won’t remember any of them at their ages now…3 and 5). We spend the whole month prior trying to plan what we are going to feed people, what kind of theme the party is going to have, what things we will have to do for people that come over. It all gets a bit stressful for the me. And then on my loved ones come over and I realize how worth it it all is! My friends and family are so amazing too, I do so much work before the party that once the party starts I get kind of lazy. And they totally pick up the slack for me. Help with the kids, the dishes, cutting the cake and serving ice cream because Zola wouldn’t detach from me. My people are amazing. Zola decided she wanted a Minnie Mouse birthday, so that is what we did. I got some upcycled wine bottles and spray painted them black and made them look like Minnie Mouse bottles. And I painted a few pink to make a centerpiece for our kitchen table too. I kept it simple when it came to decorations, I felt like that was enough other than a couple of small things. Zola was so cute..she got tired of all the commotion and went upstairs and passed out in the lazy boy upstairs! We were all laughing..she loves her alone time, always has. She always asks to go to one of our rocking chairs to watch her ipad and relax…alone. She was woken up at the party shortly after by screaming kids of course…just in time for cake and presents. We got a bounce house this year, and it started storming the afternoon of the party and I freaked out that we weren’t going to get to use it! Thank goodness mother nature got her sh*t together and the storm passed and everyone helped get the water out of the Bounce House. The kids had a blast in it all day!!! And us old folks(lol) had a blast too! Lots of yummy treats and adult drinks..it’s not all about the kids yo!!! We need to have fun too! Zola is lucky she has the summer birthday. Evalynn’s birthdays are in the Winter are pretty low-key at our house! We just sit around and eat and hang out…by the warm fireplace! Ugh..I don’t even want to think about Winter yet..Summer us too yummy. Late nights, cold drinks, salads, late night trips to the park and to get ice cream. It’s going to be so hard getting my kids back in school schedule!! This will be our first year of school Monday-Friday and I am nervous! Time to get my butt in gear…I knew this day would have to come eventually. I don’t want to even go there yet…save that for another anxiety filled post!

Happy Monday!! I hope everyone had a great day..and those of you that had a case of the Mondays..stop being pessimistic. Monday is a chance to start anew! (sarcasm does not come across well in blogging I noticed..are emojis allowed!? My dry humor needs some emoji assistance.) Nothing felt new about my day..except the new dust particles all over my house..how the heck am I supposed to keep up with all of this dust! The light shines just so in the morning where you can literally see EVERY spec of dust. It drives me insane..and the OCD in me grabs a microfiber cloth and chases after them like they are pokemon…GOTTA CATCH EM ALL!!

It was a gorgeous day outside..I took the girls to the park and realized it is now time to get the sunscreen out. My girls have pink sunkissed skin and as cute as they look with rosy cheeks..mom guilt set in. Time for sunscreen and the dreaded daily showers. They came home sweaty and full of sand. It has been so nice not to be so cooped up inside!! I was getting sooo sick of my Fall clothes too..like was ready to throw them all away. I wish I could totally revamp my wardrobe every season..just throw every piece away and start over. I bet I just described every girls dream.

So as you all know I started my Etsy page..and it’s doing horrible. I don’t really mind because I know these things don’t become successful overnight..but I still have this urge to create things. I have been practicing paper flowers to make a pretty backdrop for behind my daughter’s beds. That should keep me very busy!! Those things are harder than they look! I also decorated more vases for my master bathroom. I tried using spray paint for the first time..and loved it!! Much easier than hand painting. I will do a little bit of both. This project was 5 large vases..so spraying was necessary!! I would have been hand painting those suckers all night! I spray painted my bathroom vanity vases too..they were too light of a gray before. Do you guys like!?!? Next project with be a bath tray with some cute candles and/or bath salts in it.

I am not sure if any of you have been following me on this blogging journey..but it was my new years resolution to concentrate on ME this year (when my kids let me hah!), to concentrate on things that make me happy. It was January, a couple months into our new home, and we were finally feeling settled-ish (major ISH) and I had a some free time to take up a hobby. It wasn’t for a couple months that I saw the article on redbook on how to make a rope basket (I also blogged about this.) Well, that was a fun hobby, and I am still working on making a couple yarn-wrapped baskets, but my interest has traveled a bit (still in home décor) but on to vases. I basically just want to decorate vases all day. Like..I would all day if I could and the day gets away from me so fast now because when I am crafting..I am in craft heaven and time flies! I still have been forgetting to fit that workout in at the end of the day..hmm..oops! Need to get back on that. I got 2 days in last week that’s good right!? And scrubbing all that paint that Zola got crafty with out of my carpet all day Monday was like 10 days worth of cardio. So..yeah, I’m good.

Anyway!! Phew..always get off topic. I started wrapping yarn and twine around vases and wine/beer bottles and was super loving it. But one day at Michaels I found myself wandering around the paint section..and thought what the heck, let’s buy a bottle of chalk paint! So I get home and set up my brush, paint, vases, newspaper and what have you (no idea what I was doing but how hard can painting a vase be right!?) and I started painting a vase. WHOA! This was fun. The gliding of the paint across the smooth, glass vase was like therapy! And for 1.49 a 2oz bottle of paint, this is CHEAPER than therapy! Isn’t it funny when you are passionate about something how amazing you can make it sound. Like accountants that love their job could probably make it sound more delicious than an ooey gooey chocolate fudge brownie from TGI Fridays. That sounds so good right about now… Anyway, painting this vase was so fun that I grabbed 2 more and started painting them too, not even knowing what was going to happen after this. Well, that painting extravaganza turned into this right here.

I have been having a lot of fun playing around with different colors and just making a lot of different vases that way I can reach a wide variety of people! I know not everyone likes bright yellow and turqouise, so I will have some neutral options too. Also, I would love for people to know I love making custom items as well. Example: someone likes a purple vase I made but their bathroom is coral instead..so they can message m and ask for this same type of vase but in coral. And I will say, YES..YES I would love to!! I would love making a piece knowing someone will be enjoying it in their home or as a centerpiece for a party they are throwing. Or maybe someone is having a baby or a housewarming party..or whatever! A custom vase would be a great gift. I love homemade, thoughtful gifts like that. And I love giving them to the people I love as well.

Moral of this story is, the new year has brought me 2 hobbies that I love, blogging and crafting. If nothing more comes of it than it just being a hobby, then I will still be fulfilled..because I truly found something to do with my spare time that makes me HAPPY And that is really what is important in life.

Therr are a couple of projects that I have been working on this week, they will be up on my etsy site soon! To see what I already have on there visit http://www.craftybeachdecor.etsy.com

Everyone has a place they feel the most comfortable, most at peace. Your happy place. Where is your happy place? When we were searching for homes last year and decided to build, the first thing I looked at was the kitchen. I am a stay at home Mom who loves to cook..so this was the place I would spend most of my day. My girls and I spend at least an hour every morning in the kitchen eating breakfast, chatting, playing on the Ipad..or whatever it is that they want to do that morning. Add an hour or more in the afternoon for lunch, another hour or two for dinner..and we have spent 1/3 of our day in the kitchen! So of course I obsess about this room. It is the first thing I see in the morning, but it’s also the first thing people see when they walk into my house. I want people to feel warm and welcomed when they are in my kitchen. If you were to come over right now you would see fresh coffee, fresh baked muffins, the sun gleaming in through the windows, and Pandora softly playing from the speakers. It’s a beautiful thing.

Decorating the kitchen has been my favorite so far. From my black stainless KitchenAid appliances down to my cute little window sill, everything has been thoroughly thought out. This past week my husband spent all of his free time putting our cabinet hardware on. We ordered them from Lafata but you can find them on many other sites, including Amazon here. Similar pendants to the ones I have are here. I even found a great accent table to match them (hopefully a future purchase for us!) Colman Sphere Accent Table.

My window sill is one of my favorite things in my kitchen to decorate. I am sure I will re-decorate it often. Right now it’s just perfect. The clock, large S and “All things taste better with love” are all from Hobby Lobby. The centerpiece is from At Home..I bought the fake flowers separately and cut the stems real short. A good way to keep the flowers where you want them is to shove cotton balls in the vase..that way they stay where they are placed. BTW the cookbook I am reading is Cravings by Chrissy Teigen. She has an amazing meatloaf recipe in there! It is really good but if your kids are eating it you have to tone down the spice a bit!

By the way…have you guys seen Eco Flowers?? These things are amazing..they are the most beautifully hand-crafted flowers and would make a great centerpiece for a table or accent table! I hope to purchase something from them soon. I guess they were on shark tank and make these super real looking flower arrangements and décor from all biodegradable materials. Check their stuff out http://www.ecoflower.com. Stay tuned for more house projects to come!!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers (and single-ers!!!) I was thinking of how different Valentine’s Day is for everyone. For me, it has always been a normal day. I don’t expect my husband to bring me home a dozen roses and chocolates. He comes home too late for me to be waiting around for that! We started the fun early today. Me and the girls were painting our nails pink and red with sparkles and eating chocolates by 10 am. I bought each girl a big box of Whitman’s chocolates because that’s what I….err I mean they like!!! Come to find out half the chocolates in there are not kid-friendly!! The molasses chew stuck to the roof of Zola’s mouth, the coconut made her choke, and the toffee got stuck in their teeth. Looks like me and hubby have a big box of chocolates to share tonight!!

To match my red and pink nails, I wore one of my favorite lip combos today. First, I colored all of my lips with Mirabella Lip Definer – Tease. Now, if you are looking for a nice light and subtle lip color, you can wear this alone (or put a light gloss over it for a glossier effect) But I layered over it Absolute New York Matte Stick in Dark Red. You can wear this alone as well, but I like to go around my lips at the end with the Mirabella pencil again, to help spread the lipstick around and make sure my edges are perfect. I am not even sure if you can see the pink pencil at the end of it all, but it helps me distribute the color to my lips better! I am loving the matte lip colors lately! What more perfect for Valentine’s Day than a sexy red lip? I used to not like dark lip colors because I wished my lips were bigger and I didn’t want to bring attention to them..but one day I realized-UM WHO CARES!! I got this red matte lipstick in my Ipsy bag a few months ago, and I like it because it stays in place and doesn’t feel wet on my lips after applying, the way gloss does. I enjoy experimenting with lip colors because 99% of the time I do not wear eyeshadow, so I can get away with a bolder lip. Red lips + black winged eyeliner = ON FIRE. I will be showing a lot of my Ipsy goodies in future blog posts.

I may not get flowers for Valentine’s Day..but I did get one thing better! A new kitchen table! I have been looking for the perfectly square counter height table for our new house for a few months with no luck. We randomly strolled into Art Van driving home from another furniture store that disappointed us just like all the previous stores did. Hubby saw an Art Van and we thought WHY NOT, let’s give it one more shot! We found a table within 5 minutes!

I had the guy throw in one of those garden stools too. I have been eyeing them for a while. I found the perfect copper one. It fills the room in a bit more, and is the perfect little spot to put a plate full of appetizers, your coffee, or your tush. Yes, I said your tush! These little stools double as an extra seat!! I love a multi-functional piece. That is why I fell in love with my kitchen table, the bench can be pushed into the living room for extra seats to watch a movie. All in all, I would say this was a fulfilling Valentine’s!! The stool I bought can be searched for as: Aspire Home Accents Mathers Copper Metal Stool

I just built a new home with my lovely husband and two beautiful daughters. This was a fresh start for us and the house is a blank canvas for us to paint any way we’d like. Now, you can either look at this as super exciting or super scary! Yay! I get to decorate my new house! or…Oh No! What if I make all the wrong decisions and my house looks horrendous!? So..I started watching HGTV, googling home decor images, window shopping, and searching every home decor site I could. I realized a few things..I love turqouise and teal anything! I gravitate towards modern and rustic type decor. And I love faux fur!! Faux fur ottomans, faux fur rugs, faux fur blankets, pillows, bean bags…you name it! I ended up purchasing 4 faux fur pillows, a HUGE faux fur bean bag (SO COMFY!), and 2 faux fur square poufs for the end of my daughter’s bed. I have 5749068967 zillion more things to buy to make this house feel like home…but for now..my heart is fur…err..full. 🙂